Daily postings from the Keystone State Education
Coalition now reach more than 2250 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school
directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers,
PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, education professors,
members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies,
professional associations and education advocacy organizations via emails,
website, Facebook and Twitter.
The Keystone State Education Coalition is
pleased to be listed among the friends and allies of The Network for Public Education. Are you a member?
These daily emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
“Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Corbett and leaders of the
Pennsylvania Legislature like to point to the state funding of public schools
as an improvement over years past in terms of fairness and timing.
Other analyses differ. A analysis released this week by the Education Law Center
Last
Monday I ran the following header comparing the cost of incarceration with the
cost of educating a student:
82% of
prisoners do not have a HS diploma. It costs approx. $22,600/yr to house
an inmate. Approx. $9,644/yr to educate a student.
I
received a couple of responses citing a higher annual cost of
incarceration. Here’s a source quoting
over $42K/year…….
The Price of Prisons Pennsylvania
WHAT INCARCERATION COSTS TAXPAYERS
FACT SHEET • JANUARY 2012
This fact sheet and the report The
Price of Prisons: What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers were produced by Vera’s
Center on Sentencing and Corrections and its Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit in
partnership with the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center
Delco Times Heron’s Nest Blog by
Phil Heron, Editor Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Tom Corbett is in desperate need of
some good news. He didn't get it
yesterday.
After a disastrous budget process
that saw him go 0-for-3 in his push for three big legislative initiatives -
liquor privatization, transit funding and pension reform - the governor is
feeling the heat in his poll numbers.
Guess who's the "education governor?"
John Baer, Daily News Political
Columnist POSTED: Monday, July 8, 2013 , 8:49
AM
Okay, if you guessed Gov. Corbett,
well, you just haven't been paying attention. I mean, come on, you know
organized education awards are given for those willing to spend more money on
education. And you know the only people willing to spend more money on
education are Democrats and unions. So when the National Education Association,
the union representing 3 million teachers and school staff members, named it's
new "Education Governor of the Year," you just knew it would name
some lefty big-spender in a Democratic state.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/growls/Guess-whos-the-education-governor.html#rpTEtEQvwsZ7BmlO.99
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/growls/Guess-whos-the-education-governor.html#rpTEtEQvwsZ7BmlO.99
North Penn and Souderton going forward with Common Core Standards
Montgomery News By Jennifer Lawson jlawson@21st-centurymedia.com July 08, 2013
Three years ago, Pennsylvania
Since then, public school districts around the state, including North Penn and Souderton, have been overhauling curricula to align with the new guidelines, called the Common Core Standards.
The standards would specify what students nationwide in grades kindergarten through 12 are expected to learn in math and English at each grade level, with an emphasis on showing students the relevance of the material in the real world.
Pennsylvania
Since then, public school districts around the state, including North Penn and Souderton, have been overhauling curricula to align with the new guidelines, called the Common Core Standards.
The standards would specify what students nationwide in grades kindergarten through 12 are expected to learn in math and English at each grade level, with an emphasis on showing students the relevance of the material in the real world.
The Heartland Institute by JENNI WHITE July 9, 2013
Concerns voiced by residents and
the state legislature prompted the switch, he said. The state will use a
combination of Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) and Keystone Exams instead.
This switch will “likely be completed in fall 2013,” he said. “This is the governor’s office playing
politics,” said Peg Luksik,
a former teacher and founder of Founded on Truth, which opposes Common Core’s
national math and English benchmarks for K-12.
Common Core: Education Reform Movement Learns Lesson From Old Standards
NPR.org by CORY TURNER July 05, 2013 4:46
AM
Common Core — the new set of
national education standards in math and English language arts — will take
effect in most states next year. This move toward a single set of standards has
been embraced by a bipartisan crowd of politicians and educators largely
because of what the Common Core standards are replacing: a mess.
Protecting Educational Freedom This Independence Day: Cracks in the
Common Core
The Heritage Foundation by Lindsey Burke July 4, 2013 at 10:57 am
Just in time for Independence Day,
the foundations of the Common Core initiative are showing some cracks. Common Core is an effort to establish
national standards and tests to define what every child in public school will
learn. It has been heavily incentivized by the Obama Administration and is an
unprecedented federal overreach into local school policy. But recent moves in
several states across the country could mean that curriculum freedom remains
alive and well.
Education secretary working to meet with CUSD receiver
Delco Times By JOHN KOPP jkopp@delcotimes.com @DT_JohnKopp July 09, 2013
That meeting was thought to have been set for Monday, but Pennsylvania Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller said it is still being scheduled.
Grants for guards open to public and private schools
WITF Written by Mary
Wilson, Capitol Bureau Chief | Jul 8, 2013 8:50 PM
Private schools will be able to
compete for state grants to pay for armed security guards in Pennsylvania Newtown , Connecticut
Teach For America
The American Prospect by JAMES CERSONSKY JULY 9, 2013
This
summer, alumni and current teachers are launching the first ever national
campaign against the organization.
Twenty-four years running, the rap
on Teach for America (TFA) is a sampled, re-sampled, burned-out record: The
organization’s five-week training program is too short to prepare its recruits
to teach, especially in chronically under-served urban and rural districts;
corps members only have to commit to teach for two years, which destabilizes
schools, undermines the teaching profession, and undercuts teachers unions; and
TFA, with the help of its 501(c)4 spin-off, Leadership for Educational
Equity, is a leading force in the movement to close “failing” schools, expand
charter schools, and tie teachers’ job security to their students’ standardized
test scores. Critics burn TFA in internet-effigy across the universe of teacher
listservs and labor-friendly blogs. Last July, it earned Onion fame:
an op-ed entitled “My Year Volunteering As A Teacher Helped Educate A New
Generation Of Underprivileged Kids,” followed by a student’s take, “Can We
Please, Just Once, Have A Real Teacher?”
Despite the endless outcry, no one
has ever staged a coordinated, national effort to overhaul, or put the brakes
on, TFA—let alone anyone from within the TFA rank-and-file. On July 14, in a
summit at the annual Free Minds/Free People education conference in Chicago
Senate Panel Approves Big Early-Childhood Education Boost
Education Week Politics K-12 Blog By Alyson Klein on July
9, 2013 1:57 PM
President Barack Obama's
high-profile push to expand prekindergarten programs got a big assist from a
Senate Appropriations panel today. The panel, which is controlled by Democrats,
approved a $1.6 billion increase for Head Start—the main federal program
financing early-childhood education—plus $750 million in new money to help states
bolster the quality of their preschool programs.
Grassroots Communities Plant the Seeds of Hope for Public Education
Annenberg Institute for School
Reform by Keith Catone Published on June 28, 2013
Many current education
reforms, with little input from the community, result in the dismantling of
public education systems and programs. But grassroots organizers and activists
are asserting their own alternative vision for improving their schools.
In spite of the lofty reform
rhetoric about the Common Core State Standards and “twenty-first-century
skills,” when public education is discussed today, what emerges is a portrait
of a system in crisis. Massive budget shortfalls; shrinking investment in large
urban public school districts; a lack of attention to the needs of low-income
communities and communities of color; and toxic divides between new education
reformers and teachers and communities, with young people often caught in the
middle – something is amiss.
Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst Missed Its Fundraising Goal, Tax Documents
Reveal
By Joy.resmovits@huffingtonpost.com
Posted: 07/02/2013
2:11 pm EDT
The national lobbying group that
aims to spread the education-reform gospel of former Washington, D.C., public
schools chancellor Michelle Rhee is hauling in significantly more cash but has
so far failed to meet its own fundraising goals, recently filed tax documents obtained by The Huffington Post show. When Rhee launched StudentsFirst in December
2011 in an appearance on "Oprah," she said her goal
was to raise $1 billion in one year. StudentsFirst then adjusted its projection,
saying it aimed to raise that hefty sum over five years.
The group still appears to be
falling short. In the fiscal year starting August 1, 2011 and ending July 31, 2012 ,
StudentsFirst raised $28.5 million, more than tripling its $7.6 million fundraising
the previous year. During that period, the group's political 501(c)(4) arm
raised $15.6 million and spent $13.4 million. Rhee herself drew a salary of
about $300,000.
The lackluster fundraising news
comes as Rhee faces a significant amount of staff turnover and questions about the group's effectiveness.
Progressive Charter School
The Onion NEWS IN BRIEF • Education • News • ISSUE
49•26 • Jul 1, 2013
ATLANTA—One year into its founding
as the purported “bold next step in education reform,” administrators on Monday
sang the praises of Forest Gates Academy, a progressive new charter school that
practices an innovative philosophy of not admitting any students.
Yinzers - Save the
Date: Diane Ravitch will be speaking in Pittsburgh 6:00
pm . Location and details to
come.
Save the Date:
Diane Ravitch will be speaking in Philly at the Main Branch of the Philadelphia 7:30
pm . Details to come.
Know Your Child’s Rights! 2013-2014 Special Education
Seminars
The Law Center Law Center
This year’s
topics include Tips for Going Back to School; Psychological Testing, IEEs and
Evaluations; School Records; Children with Autism; Transition Services; Children
with Emotional Needs; Discipline and Bullying; Charter Schools; Children with
Dyslexia; Extended School Year; Assistive Technology; Discrimination and
Compensatory Education; and, Settlements. See below for descriptions and
schedules of each session.
PSBA members will elect
officers electronically for the first time in 2013
PSBA 7/8/2013
Beginning
in 2013, PSBA members will follow a completely new election process which will
be done electronically during the month of September. The changes will have
several benefits, including greater membership engagement and no more absentee
ballot process.
Below is a
quick Q&A related to the voting process this year, with more details to
come in future issues of School Leader News and at
www.psba.org. More information on the overall governance changes can be found in
the February 2013 issue of the PSBA Bulletin:
October 15-18, 2013 | Hershey Lodge & Convention Center
Important change this year: Delegate Assembly (replaces the
Legislative Policy Council) will be Tuesday Oct. 15 from 1 – 4:30 p.m.
The
PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference is the largest gathering of elected
officials in Pennsylvania
Registration:
https://www.psba.org/workshops/?workshop=17
The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, State College , PA
The state
conference is PAESSP’s premier professional development event for principals,
assistant principals and other educational leaders. Attending will enable you
to connect with fellow educators while learning from speakers and presenters
who are respected experts in educational leadership.
Featuring
Keynote Speakers: Charlotte Danielson, Dr. Todd Whitaker, Will Richardson &
David Andrews, Esq. (Legal Update).
EPLC
Education Policy Fellowship Program – Apply Now
Applications are available now for the 2013-2014 Education Policy
Fellowship Program (EPFP). The Education Policy Fellowship Program is
sponsored in Pennsylvania
With more than 350 graduates in its first
fourteen years, this Program is a premier professional development opportunity
for educators, state and local policymakers, advocates, and community
leaders. State Board of Accountancy (SBA) credits are available to
certified public accountants.
Past participants include state policymakers,
district superintendents and principals, school business officers, school board
members, education deans/chairs, statewide association leaders, parent leaders,
education advocates, and other education and community leaders. Fellows
are typically sponsored by their employer or another organization.
The Fellowship Program begins with a two-day
retreat on September 12-13, 2013 and continues to graduation
in June 2014.
Building One
America 2013 National Summit July 18-19, 2013 Washington , DC
Brookings Institution to present findings of
their “Confronting Suburban Poverty” report
Building One America’s Second National Summit
for Inclusive Suburbs and Sustainable Regions will involve local leaders and
federal policy makers to seek bipartisan solutions to the unique but common
challenges around housing, schools and infrastructure facing America America
Lineup of speakers: https://buildingoneamerica.org/summit/speakers
Information and registration: https://buildingoneamerica.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=1
James H. Shelton III
is confirmed to participate in a White House panel at the Building One America
Summit, to be held July 18-19 at Georgetown
Law School
in Washington D.C.
PA Charter Schools: $4
billion taxpayer dollars with no real oversight
Charter schools - public funding without public scrutiny
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